Standard precautions for preventing Tuberculosis and HIV: Compliance of Eswatini university student nurses

PLoS One. 2021 Dec 30;16(12):e0261944. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261944. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Tuberculosis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus are among the top ten causes of death globally. To prevent the spread of these infections, health workers and student nurses should comply to infection prevention and control measures called standard precautions. The aim of this study is to assess compliance of Eswatini university student nurses regarding standard precautions for preventing Tuberculosis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus. A non-experimental quantitative approach was used to conduct a survey on all senior student nurses of Eswatini University using questionnaires. IBM SPSS Statistics version 26 software was used to analyse the data. Results from this study showed that out of the 105 student nurses who were asked only 51.4% (n = 54) said they always used personal protective equipment. However, they did comply well on disposing sharps as 92.4% (n = 97) reported that they always used designated containers. There is a need for close supervision of student nurses in the clinical area. The researcher recommends that clinical facilitator should always accompany student nurses in the clinical area and that preceptors should be exempted from other nursing duties when there are student nurses in the hospitals so that they can mentor the students.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / methods
  • Eswatini
  • Female
  • Guideline Adherence / statistics & numerical data
  • HIV Infections / prevention & control*
  • Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
  • Health Personnel
  • Humans
  • Infection Control
  • Male
  • Mentors
  • Middle Aged
  • Occupational Exposure / prevention & control*
  • Personal Protective Equipment
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Schools, Nursing*
  • Students, Nursing*
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Tuberculosis / prevention & control*
  • Universities
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.